Dr David Kelly hit the headlines after he let slip to a journalist that Tony Blair's claim that Saddam Hussein's Iraq could deploy Weapons of Mass Destruction in 45 minutes was, at best, "dubious".

The claim was a major plank of the former Prime Minister's argument to join the USA in an invasion of the country.

The case has sparked a number of conspiracy theories that Dr Kelly was murdered by the intelligence services.

Now in his new book, An Inconvenient Death - How The Establishment Covered Up The David Kelly Affair, Mr Goslett investigates the actions of the Government after Dr Kelly, 59, was found dead at Harrowdown Hill, two miles from his home in Southmoor, Oxfordshire, on July 18 2003.

The BBC's take in 2007:

The weapons expert had given evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee on July 15 where he was asked about his alleged involvement in leaking information to BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan about the Government's so-called "dodgy dossier" arguing the case for war with Iraq being "sexed up".

Dr Kelly had earlier been named in the press as Mr Gilligan's source, something the civil servant denied.

In his new book, Mr Goslett wrote of the moment the body was discovered with some explosive new claims.

He wrote: "At the time the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was on a plane travelling between Washington DC and Tokyo."

He claimed: "The Lord Chancellor, Charles Falconer, who was in London, rang Blair on the aircraft's phone within minutes of the body being found and in a surprisingly brief call was instructed to set in motion a full-blown public inquiry into Dr Kelly's death.

"Falconer established this inquiry several hours before any exact cause of Dr Kelly's death had been determined officially - and, indeed, before the body found that morning had been formally identified."

In his opinion this was unusual.

He speculated:

"What could possibly have led Falconer and Blair, the two most senior political figures of the day, to take this unusual step on the basis of what, according to contemporaneous police reports, appeared to be a tragic case of a professional man ending his own life?

"Why were they even involved at such an early stage in what was essentially an incident that was local to Oxfordshire?

"What was it about the death of David Kelly that had disturbed Falconer and Blair so much that they went on to interrupt and ultimately derail the coroner's inquest, which had been opened routinely?

"And why were they content to replace that inquest with a less rigorous form of investigation into Dr Kelly's death?

"These questions preoccupied me as a journalist for years. They pointed to powerful forces working against the proper investigation of an unexpected event - in this case, a death mired in mystery."

A coroner's inquest usually takes many months to prepare, and in complex cases can take some years to be heard.

Mr Blair's inquiry - the Hutton Inquiry, set up to investigate "the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly," opened on August 11 2003, just 24 days after the body was found, and ended on September 24.

The report, published in January 2004, concluded he took his own life.

But there has been much criticism that the inquiry circumvented the normal inquest process.

The body was exhumed last year at the request of the family, amid their concerns about campaigners who are calling for an inquest to be opened interfering with the grave.

Dr Kelly was reportedly cremated.

Mr Goslett concludes in his book that in his opinion there are many unanswered questions, raised during or since the Hutton Inquiry, which remain.

He claimed 22 relevant witnesses had not given evidence during the inquiry.

Questions, Mr Goslett suggests still need answering are:

*Why all medical records and photographs of Dr Kelly were classified for 70 years and witness statements for 30 years from the end of the inquiry?

*Why no fingerprints were found on any of Dr Kelly's possessions, including the knife and empty pill packets, when he wore no gloves?

*Why Dr Kelly's dental records apparently went missing from, and were then returned to, his dental practice in Abingdon, around the time of his death?

*Why a police helicopter with thermal imaging camera which earlier flew over the site found no trace of the body?

Mr Goslett added: "It is clear that the Hutton Inquiry was an inadequate substitute for a coroner's inquest into Dr Kelly's death. It raised more questions than it answered."

He believes a full coroners inquest is the only way to seek to answer them.

He wrote:

"As a result of Tony Blair's decision to set up the Hutton Inquiry, the British public is required to accept that Dr Kelly took his own life. But, based on the available evidence, there are too many inconsistencies attached to the official finding of suicide to accept it wholeheartedly. I still believe for a multitude of reasons that a coroner's inquest is the only way that the full truth about his death will ever be known."

Express.co.uk has tried to contact Mr Blair through his Institute for Global Change, to ask why the inquest was bypassed and if the inquiry was launched so quickly after the death, why was this the case, but he could not be reached for comment.

Lord Falconer, who is now a partner in law firm Gibson Dunn, told Express.co.uk there was no need for an inquest into the death, as the Hutton Inquiry had already reached a verdict.

He said: "The Hutton Inquiry meant there was a much more detailed inquiry into the death of David Kelly. Not just the wider issues, but Lord Hutton looked at all medical evidence that was available."

He disputed claims that Lord Hutton was not as qualified as a coroner to investigate the events around a death, adding that he was confident he was more than able to do this. Lord Falconer said inquests take months to hear because of limited staff working on them, whereas a whole team was dedicated to the Hutton Inquiry.

There have been claims made online by commentators that Dr Kelly's was the first suspected suicide or unexplained death that had been dealt with by an inquiry instead of an inquest, and that this was unlawful.

This was not a claim made by Mr Goslett in the book, however.

Lord Falconer also disputed these separate claims. He said, "No, it was not the first. I can't give examples but there have been others. There is a section of the Public Inquiries Act which allows for this."

However, he was unable to help with the reasoning for the inquiry apparently being set up so quickly as opposed to an inquest.

He said he remembered the phone call referred to in the book, but said: "I would have to check with the timing."

He added that it would have been Mr Blair who instructed him to set up the inquiry, but he could not remember when, and it was now too far back to be able to check.

He said: "I don't think it was me that informed Mr Blair (about Dr Kelly's body being found). These sort of allegations have been made for a long time and I have dealt with them before."

He said he would not be reading the book.

Asked if he thought the air of suspicion over Dr Kelly's death would persist, he said he felt it had already gone away.

An Inconvenient Death - How The Establishment Covered Up The David Kelly Affair is published by Head of Zeus on April 12.

The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.